Mike Whaley/Democrat photo
UNH's Danny Kish hits a shot out of a bunker during a practice session Sunday at the Fore on 4 Driving Range in Lee. The UNH club golf team will play in the NCCGA national championship this weekend in Sea Island, Ga.

DURHAM — The University of New Hampshire club golf team wasn't sure what to expect going into the fall season until 63 hopefuls showed up for tryouts.

The quantity was there, now all co-coaches Rick Wolchko and Jim Callahan had to do was find the quality.

That turned out to be a fruitful search as UNH used its unparalleled depth to go undefeated for the third year in a row and qualify for nationals for the first time.

“We knew we had a solid team when we had tryouts,” Wolchko said, “but you never really know.”

Wolchko and Callahan, both members of the PGA, have been coaching the team for the past four years. Wolchko owns and operates the Fore on 4 Driving Range in Lee, the club's practice facility.

Pease Golf Course in Portsmouth is the club's home course.

“All the teams in our conference were varsity programs that became club teams,” Wolchko said. “What we've tried to do is operate as a varsity team in everything except scholarships. That's why I think we had so many kids try out. It's very hard for kids in the Northeast to get scholarships so we wind up with some real good players.”

Those good players qualified for nationals by winning regional tournaments in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., last month under adverse weather conditions.

Troy Goliber was the medalist at the Northeast Regional 1 in New York with a two-day, 36-hole total of 152.

CJ Konkowski and James Miller were low men for UNH at the Northeast Regional 2 in Pennsylvania. They both shot 152. The team's performance Oct. 27-28 clinched a spot at nationals.

“We had confidence,” said team captain Tyler Walsh. “We didn't know what to expect. We heard the competition we really good. Wed wanted to test ourselves, I guess is the best way to put it.”

UNH topped a field that included club teams from Boston College, Delaware, Rutgers, Buffalo, MIT, Brown, Pitt, Duquesne, SUNY Cortland, IUP and Ithaca.

“We're going into nationals on a pretty good win streak,” Wolchko said. “The competition will be tough, but our guys are used to it.”

Goliber, of Burlington, Vt., won the high school championship in his state, and Konkowski was one of the top players at Franklin Pierce before transferring to UNH.

The team also has several players from a Pinkerton Academy squad that finished second in the Class L tournament in 2009.

“All these kids are tournament tough,” Wolchko said. “We have a very deep team with a lot of experience. The conditions were pretty tough with events in Pennsylvania and New York. But we have the talent and the grinder mentality that most tournament players have.”

Other members of the UNH team that will compete at nationals include Walsh, Dan Kish, Colin Barnea, Sam Fuller, Tyler Angel and Greg Poggi.

Kish is from Derry and Poggi is from Hampstead. Konkowski and Fuller are both from Keene.

Walsh is from Bedford and Miller is from Andover, Mass., and played at St. John's Prep. Barnea, who has played in the Seacoast Am, is from Concord.

“We have a lot of camaraderie on the team,” Wolchko said. “It's a tight bunch. They all not only have a love for the game but also a good work ethic. They're all from New England, so inclement weather doesn't bother them. They've learned how to grind out a round regardless of conditions.”

Nationals will be held next weekend at the Seaside Course in Sea Island, Ga., site of a recent PGA Tour event.

The team is scheduled to fly out of Boston's Logan International Airport on Friday morning at 5. It plans to play a practice round later in the day with a tee time scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

“It's great,” Walsh said. “This is the first time we've been able to do anything like this. I think we're very confident in where we stand. We don't really know what to expect. It's a totally different field. We just want to go down there and take it all in and have fun. We don't want to put too much pressure on ourselves. That could lead to bad things.”

The 36-hole tournament will be contested on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17-18. UNH will compete against the top two teams in each regional qualifier from around the country.

BC is the other team going from the northeast.

“We're definitely looking forward to it,” Wolchko said. “It's pretty late in the season and we're still going. It's pretty unique. I think what people don't realize about our club team is that it was a varsity team at one time and kind of evolved into this.”

The club team consists of 16 players with an additional eight on the practice squad. UNH is taking eight players to nationals with the top five scores on each day counting toward the team score.

“The guys have to play their game,” Wolchko said. “We'll need their A game to place. We'll get out as much as possible between now and then. With our team, because we have such depth, I think we have as good a chance as anybody (to win).”

University of New Hampshire’s CJ Konkowski lines up a putt
during a practice
session Sunday at the Fore on 4
Driving Range in Lee. The UNH club golf team will play in the
NCCGA national
championship this weekend in Sea Island, Ga.
Mike Whaley/Democrat photo